


Reassurance

by kristsune



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Everybody Lives, Introspection, M/M, Wandering Thoughts, and trying to keep going anyway he can, echo is dealing with a lot, fives knows just how to help, they are the most married
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 01:29:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16776895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: Echo gets lost in the mirror, and Fives helps him back out.





	Reassurance

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another hair related fic I had to write thanks to [this lovely piece of art](https://kristsune.tumblr.com/post/180430360854/thebisexualmandalorian-wapy-you-know-100) I love Fives and Echo just so much.  
> Huge shout out to [Jesse](http://thebisexualmandalorian.tumblr.com/) for their encouragement <3

Echo sighed as he dropped his hand. He was looking in the mirror again, he didn’t know why he bothered, he didn’t recognize who he saw there anymore anyway. He had been rescued from the TechnoCore a while back, and was well on his way to recovery, fitted with decent prostheses for both his legs and his arm. They were strange, and he still had a lot of phantom pain, but at least he could move around again. 

But his hair had yet to start to grow back. The medics weren’t even sure if it ever would. So not only was he as bald as Hardcase, but he also had these ports spaced evenly over his skull. They were from when he had been plugged into the TechoCore’s system and pumped for information and used for strategy against his own brothers for just over a year. The number of _vode_ he had helped destroy, no matter how unwillingly, still haunted him.

Kix and Poke had attempted to remove the ports, but they were too well integrated, too well intertwined with his organic matter to manage it without causing major damage to his brain. So, he got durasteel and plastoid pieces maring the smooth skin of his scalp.

Which was probably exactly why Echo still checked the mirror every morning to see if anything was coming back. At least if he had hair, he could hide just a little bit of the freak he became in the name of the War.

“Hey Ey’ika, you in here?”

Echo looked up at his name to see Fives reflected in the mirror. He sighed softly, “Yeah.”

Fives came fully into the room and met Echo’s eyes in the mirror, “Thinking about your hair again?”

Echo was amazed sometimes at how well Fives could read him, even after all the time they had been apart. Fives had actually been the first to recognize him, while still floating in that tank, plugged into their tech, limbs missing, and unaware of the world around him. Had insisted on finding a way to release him, to bring him home.

Fives was also the first face Echo saw when he finally woke up. A little older, a few more lines, a few extra grey hairs, but the same tattoo, the same kind loving eyes. Echo was not ashamed to admit he cried for a long time upon seeing it. Fives’ face still gave him a sense of comfort when he was trapped back in that tank in his own head.

Echo blinked his eyes a few times, realizing he was taking too long to answer again, luckily Fives never rushed or tried to push him when he got like this. “Yeah, it’s difficult not to when I see myself like this.”

Fives lightly rested his hands on Echo’s shoulders and turned him to face him, “Ey’ika, you are just as beautiful as you have ever been. So you have a few new accessories.” Fives gently brushed his hand along his prosthetic arm and then rested it on his neck, fingertips brushing one of the ports. “You’re still my _riduur_ , and I love you.” And because he was Fives, he couldn’t just leave it at that, “Besides, you look pretty badass.”

Echo couldn’t help but smile at that, Fives really did always know how to pull him out of his own head, and make him feel at least a little better. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

Fives turned on his thousand watt smile, while giving his eyebrows a bit of a waggle, “And you know my word is good for it.”  
  
Echo finally gave in and chuckled, leaning in against Fives’ chest, “Yes, _cyare_. I absolutely do.”


End file.
